20140531

May Books

This month was light on reading and heavy on work.

When the Emperor was Divine ★★
A short novel about Japanese-American detainees during World War II; it certainly sheds some light on a topic we don't like to talk about much. The novel itself is a little incohesive and detached, but I can't tell if that was intentional because that might accurately reflect the experience for some Japanese-Americans.

A Fatal Grace ★★
A fun and light murder-mystery read. (I'm trying to lean toward reading light stuff instead of watching light stuff.) One small aspect of this book has been bothering me: it's too superficial. One of the characters we are not meant not to like is frequently described as not having any style, to the extend of her having a fleck of egg on her sweater is a mark of poor character. The protagonist, a humanist and usually a very likable person, secretly wishes he could give her his credit card to go shopping, which strikes me as incredibly condescending. Aside from the way this one character is handled, the book is quite fun.

Also: I've been trying to scour the Amazon lending library for good things to read. Viewing their listings on a computer (rather than a Kindle) is tricky, but can be done.